8,000th Van’s takes flight

On Feb. 4, Stephen Watson of Santa Clarita, Calif., took the first flight in his RV-7A, becoming the 8,000th completed RV reported to Van’s Aircraft.

Watson works for the Jet Propulsion Labs in California, and chose the RV-7A despite the fact that the airplane is powered by a piston engine, with no rocket or jet options. He completed the airplane in a little more than five years of part-time work.

He reported that “all systems performed extremely well, and she flew ‘like an RV.”

He reports that his RV-7A sports a “Lycoming IO-360-M1B, Hartzell CS prop, Dynon Skyview system complete with autopilot, transponder and other systems, a Garmin radio stack (GMA-340, GNS430W, SL-40), and a Dynon D6 backup EFIS. Switches are Rockracks by Aveo, and the exterior navs and strobes are Aveo’s LED system.”

According to Van’s Aircraft officials, 8,000 airplanes represent an average of one completed airplane every other day since Richard VanGrunsven founded Van’s Aircraft 40 years ago.

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I don’t know what the cost of an average RV kit is, but let’s say it’s $15,000. (Probably low. But to make a point…)

8,000 of them have flown. At $15,000 each, that’s $120,000,000 in sales. 120 MILLION!!! And that’s just for the initial kits. That number is easily doubled when you add cost of engines, instruments, and other extras. Not to mention all the kits that have yet to (or never will be) finished and flown.

Now someone convince me that GA doesn’t have any real impact on the economy.